


Truce

by Ehliena



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Adventure, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Kyber Crystals, crappy first aid kits, some old sith thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-11
Updated: 2016-02-11
Packaged: 2018-05-19 17:22:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5975314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ehliena/pseuds/Ehliena
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Feeling an anomaly in the Force, Kylo Ren and Rey meet in a ruined temple to investigate. The temple is not without protectors, so Ren and Rey must team up to survive the experience. Along the way they realise a few things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Truce

**Author's Note:**

  * For [glyphsbowtie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/glyphsbowtie/gifts).



> Hello to my valentine! I hope you like this. It kinda got out of hand a bit. uh... sorry about that. XD

Rey sat upright in bed as she felt a pulse in the Force. Starkiller– base had just been destroyed not a week past, and while she was quite ready to set out and search for Luke Skywalker, she still had to recuperate from the injuries she had sustained. They were mainly bumps and bruises, but General Organa did not give her the clearance to leave just yet.

She didn’t want Rey to arrive to where Luke was not in top condition.

Rey flung her mind out into the Force, searching for the anomaly that jolted her out of sleep. It was faint, and quite far away, but she could pinpoint where it was.

She glanced at the chrono on her bedside. It was a bit early but she knew that General Organa was already awake. The General often invited Rey to join in on her morning meditation, a practice that Luke had taught her in order to be more attune to the Force. She also said that it helped her clear her mind in order to do her duties as General.

Rey tried it a few times, finding peace with meditation. But on some days she couldn’t help but feel that she was wasting time. She was used to maximizing what daylight she could in order to scavenge parts. While the days on Jakku were hot, the nights were freezing. Nobody stayed out long past the sunset.

Rey headed to the ‘fresher and did her morning ablutions. While she appreciated the water, she was a bit concerned about how much she used every time she took a bath. They all informed her that the water was recycled, but growing up in the desert made her an efficient bather.

When she was done, Rey headed off to the garden that she knew the General was fond of meditating in. Rey also found the garden beautiful. General Organa told her that gardening was therapy for their troops who were injured. Rey could see that it helped. Seeing a plant grow under your own care uplifted a person’s spirit. She wondered if Finn…

Rey stopped and steadied herself on the nearby wall. It had already been a week, and Finn still showed no signs of recovery.

The healers assured her that he was strong, and getting stronger every day, but aside from the lack of pallor, Rey couldn’t see it. She made sure to spend some time by his bedside, hoping that he would wake faster with her there.

Sometimes she wasn’t alone. A Resistance pilot, Poe, also took time to sit with Finn. They haven’t really talked. They just acknowledged each other’s presence in the room. Rey knew that they could talk about Finn or about their mutual experiences with Kylo Ren, but she always refrained from saying something.

She was good with droids. People, not so much.

They did talk outside of the infirmary, but mainly only when Rey took out and X-Wing for flying practice. Poe was a good teacher, and he made her feel welcome on his team. Even though they all knew that Rey would leave for other training soon.

Rey continued on her way to the gardens. She found the General under a cherry tree, the General’s favourite spot. Rey tried to walk up to her quietly, but, as usual, the General seemed to already know she was there.

“Rey,” General Organa greeted, keeping her eyes closed as she eased herself out of the Force.

“General Organa,” Rey greeted.

“Sit with me,” the older woman invited, patting the space on the ground next to her. “And how many times have I asked you to call me Leia?”

“Several,” Rey admitted, sitting cross-legged on the spot next to Leia.

“But you won’t, will you?” Leia sighed.

“No ma’am,” Rey shook her head, causing Leia to chuckle.

“Why are you here Rey?” Leia asked, turning her head to face the young woman.

“I felt a disturbance in the Force,” Rey said. “It was strong enough that I was awoken by it. I think that someone’s in trouble.”

“I felt it too,” Leia nodded. “However, we don’t have the skills necessary to determine what it was exactly.”

“Might it have been Kylo Ren?” Rey suggested.

She was wary of broaching the topic of the General’s son, but he was the only other Force user that she could think of. Luke Skywalker’s location was on the opposite side of where she felt the pulse originate.

“No,” Leia shook her head, frowning as she did so. “I may not be able to sense him, clouded as he is to my sight, but I know Ben’s Force Signature. Whatever I felt earlier, it wasn’t him.”

Rey breathed a sigh of relief. As much as she hated the man, he was still the General’s son. It was hard for her to wish him dead when the General hoped that he would come back to the Light. Rey, and everyone in the Resistance, wanted the General to be happy.

“With your permission General,” Rey hesitantly said. “I could go and find out what it was.”

Leia considered this. On one hand, she could be sending Rey into danger, untrained in the Force as the young woman was. On the other hand, Rey was a capable fighter, she could hold her own in a fight, and there was no other person who could go and investigate things.

“You’re right,” Leia agreed. “We cannot allow the First Order to gain another Force Sensitive. You should take Chewie and the Falcon with you.”

“The repairs on the Falcon aren’t done yet,” Rey pointed out.

“The repairs on the Falcon will never be done,” Leia muttered, remembering how much of a junk heap that ship was, despite the good memories she had involving it. “Very well. You could take an X-wing squadron.”

“With all due respect General,” Rey replied, ignoring the insult to the Falcon. She also considered it to be garbage, quality garbage, but garbage nonetheless. “A whole squadron is hardly covert.”

“I cannot risk you getting captured Rey,” Leia said.

“I won’t get captured,” Rey assured her. “I’ll fly in and out, with no one the wiser.”

“Fine, fine,” Leia assented. She knew how stubborn people Rey’s age were, she was just like that when she was nineteen. “I’ll send word to the hangar to let them know that you’re going on a sanctioned mission.”

“Alright.”

“I’ll give you a few days, no more,” Leia continued. “Return here after then, or I’ll send someone after you.”

“Thank you General,” Rey bowed her head.

“Now that that’s decided,” Leia said. “Shall we meditate?”

Rey took a deep breath and relaxed her muscles. She would need a clear mind on her coming mission. She opened her mind to the Force and let her worries go.

***

Kylo Ren snapped out of his meditation when he felt the pulse flow through the Force. He knew that his Master would have felt it too, but he was hesitant to go to Snoke.

His Master, wise though he was, was a bit off when it came to dealing with other Force Sensitive individuals.

Ren cringed as he recalled the destruction of Luke Skywalker’s school. The numerous lives that had been wasted. It was the way of the First Order, either you sided with them, or you were against them. There was no middle ground. Such was the Sith way.

Not that he was a Sith. Supreme Leader Snoke was encouraging him to use both sides of the Force, but it was harder than his master made it seem. The Light called to him, as did the Dark. He continued to cross the line between the two when his master wanted him to straddle the middle.

Ren shook his head to clear his thoughts. He had to report to his master. He knew that Snoke would send him off to investigate the anomaly. He knew that he was going to be killing whatever caused that pulse. There was no guarantee that Ren would be told to recruit whoever it was.

If such was the will of his master, then Kylo Ren would see it done.

***

Later that day, Rey made her way to the hangar. She passed several friendly faces, none that she was close to, but then again she wasn’t really close to anyone.

“Rey!” a woman greeted, standing up from her crouched position, greeting Rey by waving the wrench in her hand.

“Jess,” Rey waved her hand in reply and made her way to the pilot.

Jessika Pava was one of the few female pilots of the Resistance. Some would say that she was the best, seeing that she was part of Poe’s squadron. Jess herself said that she was just a part of the team because she was the only one crazy enough to qualify for it.

“Heard about your mission,” Jess told her.

“You did?” Rey asked in surprised. She thought that it was going to be secret, in case they had First Order spies afoot.

“Well,” Jess said. “I heard you _had_ a mission. There weren’t really any details.”

“Oh,” Rey was relieved. It would have been a disaster if the First Order knew where she was going.

“Just be careful out there alright?” Jess said as she pat Rey on the back. “Not many female pilots around here, would hate to lose one.”

Rey assured the other woman that she would take care and excused herself. She was going to leave in a few hours and she had to check on her ship. As confident as she was in the skills of the Resistance’s mechanics, she had to see for herself that the ship was in good repair.

The X-wing that they gave her was an older model, but the rest of Poe’s squadron had helped her modify it a bit to make up for the age of the ship. They painted the ship a dirty white colour that Rey had specified. They were confused at first, but when she said that she didn’t want to waste water on always cleaning up a white ship, they understood.

The Resistance logo had also been painted over. It had been the General’s idea.

“No sense with letting you fly around with a target,” she had said, when Rey pointed out the omission after the paint job was done. “You’re not officially with the Resistance. And even if you were, I don’t want to risk you getting captured by First Order sympathisers just because of a logo.”

All in all, Rey was proud of her ship.

She spent an hour or so tweaking some parts, tightening bolts and loosening them appropriately, making sure that all the wires were properly insulated, little things that made her happy. Meditation might help center her mind, but working on machinery gave her a different sort of calm.

She was working under the ship when she felt a nudge on her foot.

“Hey Rey.”

Rey slid out and found Poe standing there with a smile on his face and a canteen in his hand. BB-8 was there right at his side.

“Hello Poe,” she sat up. “Hello Beebee.”

BB-8 beeped in greeting. Poe gave her the canteen and she gratefully drank from it.

“Thanks,” she said, giving the canteen back to Poe.

“You’re welcome,” he replied. “Always stay hydrated. But I don’t have to tell you that, do I?”

Rey blushed. True, she knew better than to let herself get dehydrated, coming from Jakku and all, but sometimes she got so absorbed in tinkering with her ship that she forgot to drink, or eat, or sleep that one time.

“Thank you Poe,” she said again.

He really was a caring guy. Poe looked out for a lot of people in the Resistance, even though he hadn’t been a part of it for very long. Some people found it suspicious, but Rey figured it was just in his nature to be good. If Finn trusted him, she was going to trust him too.

“So you’re going on a mission?” Poe asked, helping her to her feet.

“Yep,” she nodded. “On the General’s orders.”

“Be careful alright?” Poe said, suddenly serious. “The General’s missions aren’t always the safest ones.”

Rey was surprised at his shift in attitude. Poe idolised the General. Then again, given what had happened to him on his last solo mission for her, Rey couldn’t blame him for it.

“I will,” she assured him. “Don’t worry.”

“I won’t ask you where you’re going,” Poe said. “Just make sure you pack appropriately. Getting stuck somewhere without the right gear isn’t pretty.”

With that he walked off. BB-8 stood there for a moment, before giving her a beep and rolling on after Poe. While Rey missed the droid, she knew that BB-8 was Poe’s. For her mission, R2-D2 was going with her. The droid might have been considered obsolete by some, but General Organa had assured Rey that the droid was more than a match for some of the more recent models.

Rey tidied up her things after giving her ship one last seeing to. She was going to leave in the morning, she had to get a good night’s rest before then. Who knew what she was going to be up against when she got to her destination?

***

“Ready Artoo?” Rey asked as she was prepping her ship for take-off.

The droid beeped happily at her, telling her what she could already see on the panel in front of her. The ship was ready to go. All she had to do was let it.

Rey ran through a mental list of the things that she needed, double-checking to make sure she had everything. Her staff was by her side, the Skywalker lightsaber was in the bag at her feet. She shuddered as she recalled the Force vision that touching the lightsaber had given her.

Destiny or not, the visions confused her. She would have called them visions of her future, seeing as how the one with her duel with Kylo Ren in the forest on Starkiller base had turned out. But she also saw visions of the past, her past and that of Luke’s.

Rey shook her head to clear it. There was no point in thinking too much about it. She had a mission and she focused on that instead.

For all she knew there was a young Force sensitive just waiting for help.

“Let’s go Artoo,” she said, driving her ship to the runway. “The sooner we get there, the sooner we get back and go find Luke.”

R2-D2 beeped happily. The droid had missed his master.

Rey steered the ship onto the runway. Take-off was always her favourite part. The rush of speed, the initial lift off, it was all so exhilarating.

“Ground crew,” she said over the comm. “Am I clear for take-off?”

“All clear Scavenger,” the crew responded, using her chosen call sign. It did Rey well to remember where she had come from.

“Thank you ground crew,” she said, shifting the speed so she could accelerate.

“May the Force be with you Rey.”

Rey was surprised to hear the General’s voice over the comm. She would have responded but thought better of it. Instead she threw the ship into gear and took off.

“And with you General,” she muttered as soon as she cleared D’Qar’s atmosphere.

She cruised through the orbit for a bit, waiting until she cleared the planet’s gravitational field before she went into hyperdrive. Her destination was a small moon of a gas giant on the Outer Rim. The moon could sustain human life, but the gas giant was a dead planet with a strong gravitational field, so it was generally uninhabited.

Rey had to make sure that she pulled out of hyperdrive on the side of the moon that was facing away from the planet. As soon as she was in the moon’s atmosphere, she would be free to fly her ship without having to worry about being sucked into the gas giant’s field.

The journey to the moon was uneventful. As she cleared the atmosphere and flew around the moon, she was astounded by what she saw.

It was a jungle. She had read about these places, but before she left Jakku, she could never quite picture one. Now here she was on a jungle moon, surrounded by trees that formed a dense canopy that she couldn’t even see the ground.

“Artoo, can you find us somewhere to land?” she asked the droid.

R2-D2 beeped in response.

“A few kilometres away?” her brow furrowed. “As long as it’s safe Artoo. Take us there.”

She let the droid steer the ship. Soon enough, there was a clearing up ahead. It was wide enough for her to land on at least, but if any enemy ships flew past, she would have no cover.

As soon as they landed, Rey climbed out of the ship and stretched. It hadn’t been a long flight, a couple of standard hours at most, but she was cooped up in the cockpit. She unzipped her flightsuit, not wanting to go around in the bright orange attire. Her new clothes that were commissioned for her were underneath it the whole time. She adjusted the vest, making sure it was on straight.

“I’m going to go look around Artoo,” she informed the droid, shouldering her staff. “I can sense whoever it is to the north. Stay here.”

The droid beeped a denial.

“No Artoo,” she said. “You should stay with the ship.”

The droid beeped again. Insisting that it would go with her.

“Fine,” she acquiesced. “Come along then. And hold on to this.”

She handed him Luke’s lightsaber. The droid apparently had a convenient hatch for it. Rey didn’t question it.

***

Kylo Ren landed the TIE fighter east of where he could feel the Force user was. General Hux wanted him to take his Upsilon command shuttle but he declined.

“It’s not a mission where I need any of your storm troopers General,” Ren told Hux as he was preparing for his mission. “I can handle this one on my own.”

“Going Solo then Ren?” Hux asked, baiting the other man. “You should know how dangerous that is.”

Ren was never more thankful for his helmet than he was at that moment. He knew how to control his facial expressions, he had learned to do so at an early age. Being the son of a politician meant that he had to exercise control. But whenever Hux taunted him for his background, he couldn’t help but feel irritated.

Hux just felt superior because he had been raised that way. The First Order and its doctrines was all that Hux knew.

Sometimes, Ren felt sorry for him.

“I’ll be fine,” Ren said, keeping his voice even. “It’s a simple mission that even you could do.”

Ren had stormed off after that. Hux had probably seethed for a while. Ren liked to point out that the other man rarely left whatever starship he was on. Hux might have been a general, but his battle experience was quite limited.

As Ren landed, he could feel another presence on the otherwise uninhabited moon. He scowled.

It was her. The girl. The scavenger from Jakku. The one responsible of giving him his newest scar. She was on the moon, probably for the same reason he was. She probably hadn’t found Luke Skywalker yet. She was still untrained. If only she had accepted his offer of becoming her teacher.

Ren climbed out of the fighter and checked to make sure that his mental shields were up. There was no need to alert her of his presence. Not yet.

***

Rey felt like she had been walking for hours. The humidity on the planet was stifling. She was used to heat, but damp was something new to her.

R2-D2 rolled along beside her. She didn’t know how the droid could successfully get past all the foliage since all the other astromech droids she had ever met, excepting BB-8, seemed unable to traverse anything trickier than a ramp.

General Organa was right, R2-D2 _was_ special.

Rey let her mind loose in the Force, determining if she was going the right way. She could feel that the source was close, a few more meters. She could tell that there was something big, a structure maybe.

“Come on Artoo,” Rey said. “Not far along now.”

A few meters later and she was right. A vast structure lay before her, a building of some sort. This puzzled her because all the data she read on about the moon indicated that it had always been uninhabited.

“This is odd,” she murmured to herself. “Why would there be a temple here?”

She warily approached the structure, or what she thought was a temple, it could’ve been a palace for all she knew. But she knew a wreck when she saw one, having been a scavenger most her life. Sure the temple was made of rock rather than the durasteel that starships were made of, but rock decayed just like any other thing.

“These ruins are old Artoo,” she said. “Very old.”

They were. Rey didn’t know much about architecture or the degradation of rocks, but judging from what she could tell. The temple had been around for a while. Probably from back before the Empire was built.

She told that to the droid who just beeped in laughter.

“Yes Artoo,” she smiled. “I realise that you also existed before the Empire. This place might have been built before you though.”

R2-D2 beeped in agreement.

“Shall we go inside?” she suggested, even though she was going to go in with or without his agreement. “The source is coming from inside.”

The droid beeped unhappily, but followed Rey when she walked off towards the entrance. Rey laughed when she heard his next beep.

“I know,” she replied. “I have a bad feeling about this too.”

***

Ren approached the ruins, studying them curiously. The records from the Empire had little information about the moon. It only said that the planet’s gravitational field made it a hazard to colonize, so no efforts were made to that extent.

He scowled as he searched the Force. He could feel the scavenger exploring the south side of the structure. Ren pulled his consciousness away from her. Instead he searched through the ruins, trying to determine where exactly the reason he was here was.

He found it. It was in a lower chamber. The pulse was dull, weaker than the initial burst, but it was still there.

Ren put up his shields, ensuring that no one could sense him through the Force.

He had to beat the scavenger to the source.

***

Rey explored the structure. She already knew that it was very old. She wondered what it had been used for.

It was highly unlikely that smugglers built it. No smuggler worth his salt would build such a grand place. Not even a group of smugglers would build something so outlandish.

Rey wondered if this had belonged to some Order, probably even the Jedi. Then she shook her head. If it did belong to some order, it wasn’t the Jedi. They seemed to have too much sense than build a temple in such an inaccessible location.

Then again, she didn’t really know any Jedi. Perhaps when she would meet Luke Skywalker, he would enlighten her as to some misconceptions that she might have. Until then though, all Rey had were speculations and conjectures that she had gained from the Solo family.

Rey continued exploring the structure, stopping now and again to feel her way towards whatever it was giving off such an energy.

It couldn’t have been alive. Nobody had set foot in these ruins for a long time. Unless whatever it was had actually been in hibernation and had just been reactivated.

Rey gave a snort at the thought.

Who or what would have had the means to reactivate anything?

She stuck to her path, knowing she was on the right track to get to the source. If it was a sentient being, then she would convince whoever it was to join her. If it was a weapon, she would find some way to deactivate or destroy it.

No sense in turning back now that she was here. She might as well complete the mission. It was better that she saw to it rather than leave and have the First Order snoop around.

As she made her way to the source, she wondered if there were already First Order agents on the planet. If she had felt the pulse, surely Kylo Ren would have as well. It was a miracle that there weren’t already a few First Order ships flying around.

Rey didn’t believe in miracles.

She launched her consciousness into the Force. It was crude, much like a toddler who was still learning to walk, but she could see the broader picture. The Force showed her no other signatures save her own and that of the source she was going after.

Rey sighed in relief. She was safe.

***

Ren felt the scavenger probing the Force and tightened his shields. It would not do to have her discover him now. He was so close to the source, he could almost taste it.

He stopped in his tracks as he felt her scan of the entire moon. He knew that even if he moved, she wouldn’t know it, his mental shielding was better than it was on Starkiller. But he didn’t want to risk anything.

It was only because Ren was so immensely preoccupied with his mental shields that he didn’t notice the large figure looming behind him and knocking him out with a strong wave of the Force.

***

Rey stopped in her tracks as she felt a movement in the Force. It had been strong, a fluctuation of some sort. Then it normalised into the hum that she had been tracking.

She furrowed her brow. Something did not feel right.

R2-D2 let out a few beeps.

“Quiet Artoo,” she said, holding up a hand to silence the droid. “I need to concentrate.”

The droid let out a disappointed hum.

Rey ignored him and focused on the Force. It was faint, but she felt a different Force signature, one that had not been there before the sudden surge.

It was one she was familiar with, one which she despised.

“Kylo Ren,” she spat out. “I know why he’s here.”

She knew her luck wouldn’t hold, that there was bound to be a First Order agent on the planet with her. But something was oddly wrong with his Force presence.

Rey focused on it for a moment, trying to figure out what the problem was.

Then she realised it. The weakness of his Force Signature had nothing to do with how far he was to her. It was weak because something had gotten to him.

“Serves him right,” Rey muttered, mindful of the droid. “He probably rushed headlong into whatever it was that gave off that pulse and it knocked him out.”

R2-D2 beeped in response, clearly having heard her. She shot it an apologetic look. The droid had attachments to Kylo Ren, just as it had attachments to the General.

“I guess we have to save him?” Rey asked, although she didn’t really want to.

R2-D2 beeped his approval.

“Fine, fine,” Rey agreed. “For the General.”

They made their way to the source. Rey had no idea that astromechs even had a stealth mode. She always thought that they were quite noisy, but R2-D2 followed her more quietly than he had been before.

She had to admire the droid’s determination to save Kylo Ren.

Rey carefully masked her Force Signature. It wasn’t as proficient as the one Ren had on earlier, but it suited her purpose. As long as she could assess what it was that she was going up against, she could plan out the appropriate measures that she had to take.

In a sense it was like scavenging. She had to know what parts were located where in order to maximize her time in a ruin.

She scanned the Force again. Whatever it was, it was huge. Bigger than Chewbacca. Rey wondered it was a sentient being. If it was, it might have found Ren disturbing, being physically there but without a presence in the Force.

Rey took a steeling breath. She was not afraid of monsters in the dark. She was not afraid of—

A figure dropped down in front of her and she screamed.

***

Ren jolted upright when he heard the scream.

He quickly gathered his bearings and saw that whatever had knocked him out was at the opposite end of the hall. It was big and he couldn’t make out much of what it was due to the dim lighting of the place, but he could see that it was threatening the scavenger girl.

Without a second thought he ignited his lightsaber and rushed in to save her.

***

Rey took a step back from the figure standing before her. She had just been startled. She wasn’t really afraid.

Or so she kept telling herself.

She pulled her staff from her back and held it in front of her. She didn’t know why but her hands shook as she held her weapon.

Rey’s knees wavered as she held her guard. She had no idea why she was afraid. There was nothing intimidating about the stone figure in front of her. It was probably a guardian of the temple.

The only thing eerie about the figure was that it had glowing red eyes. The eyes were the main thing that drew Rey’s attention.

The guardian was raising its weapon, a stone club. It moved slowly and Rey knew she could just step out of its way. Her feet wouldn’t move.

At the club swung downwards, Rey shut her eyes and wondered if she had survived the First Order only to be crushed on some moon where no one would ever find her.

***

Ren saw that the stone club was slowly, but forcefully, swinging towards the scavenger. He had no idea why she was just standing there, looking, for all intents and purposes, like she was accepting it to be her fate that she would die today.

He wasn’t going to let that happen.

Only he had the right to kill her, and he would only do so if she provoked him.

They had a bond. He had no words to describe it, but he knew it was there. He had felt it during his interrogation of her. He felt it while they had duelled on Starkiller base as it was blowing up. He felt it now.

He was going to save her.

Ren used the Force to propel himself forward. He knew that he couldn’t simply cut the club, it would only fall on her head. She didn’t seem to be in any condition to move. He wondered why, but kept those thoughts for after he had dispatched the guardian.

He tried the using the Force to pull the club away from her, but there was no give. Whatever the guardian was, it was immune to manipulation via the Force.

Ren knew he had no other option, and he hoped that she would not hold it against him. In order to save her life, he used the Force to push her back out of harm’s way.

***

Rey felt an invisible force propel her from where she was standing to the nearest wall. It wasn’t the softest place to land, but she was grateful all the same.

It was either that or be squashed, and she rather liked being three dimensional.

She picked herself up and saw that Kylo Ren was engaging the guardian. She supposed that she should go help him, but her staff was no use against such a being.

“Artoo,” she said, calling the droid to her side. “The saber.”

The droid shot the saber up and Rey caught it in her hand. Not missing a beat, she ignited the blade and charged the guardian.

***

Once the scavenger was out of the way, Ren turned his attention to the guardian. He decided that the best course of action was to dismember it, in order to prevent it from attacking while he figured out what made it work.

The only flaw in his plan was that the stone was harder to cut than he initially expected. The club swung and caught him in the abdomen, sending him flying.

It had hurt, even though the swing was slow.

Ren landed on his feet, using the Force as a buffer, but he was distracted. His ankle twisted. Ren winced as he ignored the pain. He danced just out of the guardian’s range and regrouped.

_What makes this thing work?_ he thought, flinging stone debris at the guardian in an attempt to stop its advance. If only he knew what powered it, he could then figure out how to stop it.

Ren was so focused on examining his opponent that he didn’t realise that the scavenger had his grandfather’s lightsaber and was using it to hack at the guardian, not that it would do much harm.

She seemed to have realised it and ducked out of the guardian’s range. If there was ever a time that he needed to call a temporary truce, he knew this was it.

“What do we do?” she asked, surprising Ren. He would never have thought that she would be the one to propose a ceasefire first.

“I’m thinking about it,” he stalled, still flinging rocks at the guardian.

Ren took a look at his surroundings, trying to find a way to use them against their opponent. He let out a huff of frustration when he couldn’t think of anything. Without a plan, escape was their only solution.

“Follow me!” he said as he shut off his lightsaber and ran for the doorway that he had entered through.

He didn’t need to look back to check if the girl and R2-D2 were following, he could hear them. The guardian may have been close to indestructible, but it was slow. They easily ran past it.

Just when they were about to reach the doorway, another guardian dropped down in front of them, blocking their path. They jumped to the side to avoid the club that the guardian was swinging towards them.

“Great,” Ren muttered. “What now?”

He lifted another boulder and used the Force to propel it towards the guardian. They had a guardian blocking the way forward, and another one at their back. Both were immune to lightsabers. Ren huffed again.

He used to want to have adventures like his uncle and parents did. But now that he was living it, he realised just how much trouble it was.

In their stories, something always happened when they were in trouble that ended up saving it. Han had called it the Skywalker dumb luck. Ren hoped that he was enough of a Skywalker to have that luck.

As the two guardians closed in on them, the ground began to shake.

Before anything else could happen, Ren felt the floor underneath him give way, then he was falling.

***

Rey spluttered as she fought to keep her head above water. Of all the places for them to end up in, an underground lake was not somewhere Rey would have expected.

She struggled and pathetically flailed her arms. She would have chosen death by crushing than death by drowning. Her head had been underwater for a while, and she was just about to give up.

Arms appeared from behind her and hooked under her armpits. She felt the pull above water and gasped as her head cleared the surface.

“Don’t struggle,” Ren said as he swam them to the shore.

As soon as they were on solid ground, Rey heaved in deep breaths. She didn’t know how to swim. She had no opportunity to learn. Jakku was a desert planet. Water was too precious.

“Are you alright?” Ren asked her, politely keeping his distance.

“I will be,” she replied. “Thank you for saving me. You didn’t have to.”

“It would have been a waste of talent if you had died,” Ren shrugged. “Scavenger.”

“I have a name, you know,” Rey replied.

“I don’t,” Ren said.

“Oh,” Rey blushed. She had assumed that he knew because he had probed her mind. “I’m Rey.”

“Kylo Ren,” he replied, removing his helmet. “Although I’m sure you’re aware of that.”

Rey nodded in response, staring at Ren. What a difference a helmet made. With it on, he was this striking presence that commanded fear and respect. Without it, she could see Han and Leia’s son.

“We should move,” Ren said, rising to his feet, but favouring one side over the other. “I don’t want to know if those guardians can fly down here.”

He seemed to be upholding the earlier truce they had made while fighting the guardians.

Rey stood, using her staff as leverage. She was lucky that she didn’t lose either of her weapons. However, she seemed to be missing a droid.

“Artoo!” she exclaimed. “Where’s Artoo?”

A beep came from the opposite bank of the lake. Artoo had probably propelled himself over to land on that side. Ren frowned as he saw where the droid was.

“If Artoo says that’s the way out of here,” Ren said. “Then that’s where we should go.”

“Is there a bridge?” Rey asked, not eager to go back into the water.

“None that I could see,” he replied.

Rey looked around as best as she could in the dim cavern. He was right, there were no visible bridges. She pursed her lips.

“I can’t swim,” she admitted.

“I noticed,” he smirked.

“I can’t get across,” she said, ignoring his jab. “I should just find another way around the lake.”

Ren studied her for a moment, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with her decision. Rey shored up what mental shields she could, she had no idea what was going through his mind.

“Here,” he said, holding out his helmet towards her. “Put it on, it filters out water to a degree.”

“Huh?” Rey asked.

“Put it on,” he repeated. “I’ll swim us across. You can hold on to my back.”

“I don’t understand.”

She really didn’t. Why would he offer to swim them across when he could just go on his own? Having her on his back meant that she could harm him while his defences were down.

“The way I see it,” he said, his voice steady. “We need to help each other to get off this moon. You saw those guardians, they were built to withstand lightsabers. We don’t know how many more there are. Sticking together makes sense.”

Rey frowned but she had to admit that he was right. If they wanted to get off this moon, they had to work together. Still, she didn’t like the idea of swimming across a lake.

“Don’t worry,” he said in a comforting tone. “I’m a good swimmer. Now put on the helmet and let’s go.”

Having no reason to stall, she did as she was told and put on the helmet. Once she did she noticed how limited her vision was. How he could stand to be handicapped this way while in a fight, she didn’t know.

They waded into the lake until the water reached their waist. He gestured that she should start clinging to him. Rey took a deep breath as she looped her arms around his neck. She didn’t think this was such a good idea.

***

Ren dove into the water as soon as he felt the scavenger girl’s, Rey’s, arms tighten. He needed to get them across the lake, and he needed to do it quickly. Her first experience with swimming didn’t leave a very good impression on her, he could tell by the fear that he felt radiate from her through the Force.

He had to get them to the other side before she could start panicking.

Ren’s thoughts wandered as he swam, remembering his childhood and the days his family would teach him how to swim. His uncle wasn’t very helpful, coming from Tatooine meant that Luke Skywalker had almost no swimming skills. His father’s method of swimming wasn’t very precise either. Han Solo just needed to know how to get himself across water in case he needed to escape.

It was his mother who taught him how to swim properly. She told him stories of summers on Alderaan and trips to Naboo. She had the best stories.

He missed her.

Ren gave a forceful exhale. It didn’t help him when he dwelled on the past. He brought his attention to the present.

Rey was still clinging on to him. Not so tight to choke him, but tight enough to tell him that she was still afraid. He used a little bit of the Force to propel himself forward. The sooner they get out of the water, the sooner she could calm down.

He had no idea how those guardians operated, but since they didn’t attack R2-D2, he assumed that they had caught him because of how strange his presence was in the Force. If they hunted that way, then the fear that was coming from Rey was bound to attract them and any of their kind.

Ren swam harder. He did not want to have to deal with a guardian while Rey was defenceless in the water.

***

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Rey focused on her breathing, trying to tamp down on her fear through breathing exercises. She would have focused on something else, but the only other thing that came to her mind in the situation they were in was Kylo Ren.

Kylo Ren and his warm body underneath hers, exerting so much effort just to get them across a lake. She was surprised that he was warm. She always thought that he would be cold.

Rey tightened her grip a bit as she felt herself slip. Before this adventure, water had always been synonymous to life. Water had always brought life. Only now did she realise that it could also bring death.

Ren started to rise, the water shallow enough that his feet could touch the ground. Rey still clung to his back.

“It’s alright,” Ren said in a soothing voice. “It’s safe to stand.”

She gradually loosened her hold on him, and he used the slack in her grip to turn and face her. He placed his hand on her waist and held her as she floated in the water, her legs still curled up.

“You can reach the ground,” he informed her.

She gave him a sceptical look before she realised that he probably couldn’t see it through the helmet. He chuckled, guessing her reaction from the Force and from the stiffness of her body.

Rey slowly uncurled one leg and felt around for the ground. When her foot hit something solid, she tentatively found the same object with her other foot. She gave a triumphant smile, despite still having her hands on Ren’s shoulders.

“Good job,” Ren commended. “Only, you’re stepping on my feet.”

Rey blushed, thankful for the helmet. She once again braced herself on his shoulders as she stepped off of his feet slowly, one foot at a time.

When she was firmly on the ground, she realised three things. The water was just up to her waist. Her hands were still on Kylo Ren’s shoulders. And his hands were still on her waist.

She took a step back, fully intending to distance herself from the man, but she slipped. He caught her and pressed her close.

“Careful,” he whispered. “There might be algae.”

She had no idea what algae was. She nodded anyway and he helped her up.

“It might be slippery,” he warned, releasing her from his embrace but holding her hand. “Let’s just take this slow.”

“You don’t have to hold my hand,” Rey protested. Her voice sounded odd through the helmet.

“Indulge me,” Ren replied, smirking at her. “I might slip.”

Rey realised that when Kylo Ren was being charming, she could see his resemblance to Han. The thought disconcerted her enough to follow his lead.

***

Ren had no idea what he was doing. He knew that he was just being practical when he insisted that they travel together. He was injured after all. There was no sense in getting caught unaware by those guardians again. It was safer for the both of them.

Having her on his back as they crossed the lake was another practical decision. Despite his ankle it would have been worse if they wasted time trying to find another way across, any guardian could have found them.

Holding her hand and being kind though, that was weakness.

He could justify it, using his ankle as an excuse, but he wouldn’t lie to himself about this.

At the back of his mind, the bond he felt between them hummed. He wondered if she could feel it, if she even knew what it meant. He glanced down at their linked hands.

If this was all he could get, it would be enough.

The bond hummed in approval.

***

Rey couldn’t find the words to describe what she was feeling as they waded to shore. She thought that it was just embarrassment because he had to comfort her as one would a child over a silly fear like water. But that wasn’t it.

There was something else. It niggled at the back of her mind. It wasn’t bad, it was just… incomplete. She probed at the feeling.

“Don’t,” Ren said, squeezing her hand gently.

“What?” she asked, concentrating on what she felt.

It bothered her.

This feeling had started on Takodana. It reminded her of indigestion, which was what she thought was happening the first time she felt it. When she awoke on Starkiller and still felt it, she supposed that it hadn’t passed yet.

When they had battled in the woods, the feeling had been prominent again. She decided back then that it had just been nerves. She had just seen Han murdered and Finn, who was the closest thing she had to a friend was injured. She was no swordsman, she only knew how to fight with a staff.

At the moment, she chose to blame fear for the reason she was feeling what she was. But she knew that assessment wasn’t quite accurate.

“Don’t poke at it,” Ren reprimanded. “It bothers me when you do.”

“What are you talking about?” Rey asked tersely.

She was drenched and still partially in water. Her whole day had not gone well. She had to rely on Kylo Ren, who was her enemy. In short, she wasn’t in a mood to be scolded like a child.

“The bond,” Ren explained. “Don’t poke at it.”

“Bond?” she asked, “What bond?”

Ren sighed. He pulled her along, ignoring her cry of protest.

“We should get to dry land,” he said. “We should find somewhere relatively secure. Then we should get dry. We could catch a cold if we stay here.”

“The bond?” Rey asked, following him since she had no choice. He was still holding her hand.

“I’ll explain it later.”

***

On shore Ren greeted R2-D2. He had missed the droid, but he fully expected to be zapped because of what had happened at Luke’s school. Ren didn’t relish being zapped when he was soaking wet.

The droid beeped in greeting.

“Hello to you too Artoo,” Ren replied. “Can you not zap me until after I get dry?”

R2-D2’s head swivelled, gaging the harm that a zap could do to Ren in his current condition. The droid beeped in agreement.

“Thank you,” Ren said, patting the droid on the head. “Any ideas on where we could get dry?”

The droid beeped in affirmative.

“Really?” Rey asked, obviously impressed by the droid’s capabilities.

Ren looked at her and hid a smile. She was still wearing his helmet.

“What?” she asked as she noticed his look.

“Nothing,” he shook his head. “Lead the way Artoo.”

***

The room R2-D2 brought them to was small enough that no guardians could possibly fit in it. Part of the roof had caved in long ago to allow some light to shine through and for plant material to gather on the ground.

“Good,” Ren said as he eased himself to his knees. “We could start a small fire.”

Rey stood there and watched as he gathered the dried leaves and a few twigs to start building a fire. When he was done, he nodded to R2-D2 to light it.

“Thanks Artoo,” he said, smiling at the droid.

Rey wondered why the room seemed to be so dim, despite the sunlight. She turned her head every which way, observing her surroundings. Ren leaned over and tapped the helmet.

Oh.

She fumbled with the clasps, her fingers slipping over them.

“Allow me?” Ren suggested, asking permission.

Rey nodded. Ren stood before and and slipped his fingers underneath the helmet. She could feel the heat radiating off of him. As the helmet’s latches were released, Ren slowly pulled it off of her.

“Hi,” she said with an awkward smile.

“Hello,” he replied.

He stepped away and sank back to the ground, stretching his long legs.

“We should get out of these clothes,” he said, not looking at her. “We might catch a cold.”

“Right,” Rey agreed.

Neither made any move to disrobe. To say that their situation was uncomfortable was an understatement. They were enemies. Discussing little things like getting colds was odd.

Rey knew that he had a point, that it would be better for the both of them if they shed off their damp clothes and dried off. But she already showed him one weakness today, she was reluctant to show him another.

“Oh for the love of…” Ren trailed off, standing to yank off his wet outer layers and spread them out near the edge of the fire. Close enough to dry a bit, but far enough that they wouldn’t burn.

Rey watched as Ren sat back down on the ground, dressed only in his innermost tunic and trousers. He pulled off one boot without much trouble and upended it near the fire. With his other boot he was hissing.

“Are you alright?” she asked, moving closer to help him.

“Just a little sprain,” he admitted. “Nothing I can’t handle.”

Rey held herself back, observing him as he attempted to pull off his boot. After his third attempt, which ended up with him grunting, she batted away his hands and slowly pulled off his boot.

He gave another hiss of pain, but she slid the boot off his ankle. Tossing the footwear aside, she lifted his foot and assessed the joint. It had a slight discoloration on one side, but it was fine in the other. It was a bit swollen compared to the other foot though.

Rey’s brow furrowed. When she left Resistance Headquarters that morning, she did not expect that she would be bandaging up a member of the First Order, let alone, Kylo Ren.

“Artoo, the medikit please,” she said, holding out a hand while the other supported Ren’s foot.

The droid beeped as it handed her the kit. She rummaged through it with one hand, looking for the Bacta and the bandage that she knew were in the kit.

“It’s just a small bruise,” Ren insisted. Rey could hear a little bit of a whine in his voice.

“A small bruise, huh?” she asked as she bent his foot away from the injured side, eliciting a small cry of pain from the man. “You’re lucky it looks like it’s just a sprain and not torn ligaments.”

Ren murmured something under his breath. She chose to ignore it to focus on wrapping the injured ankle.

Honestly, were all men such weaklings when it came to pain?

She knew he was cursing as she bandaged up his ankle. Although his lips didn’t move, she could sense it at the back of his mind. She could also sense his pain, annoyance, and a bit of embarrassment.

“What was that about a bond?”

***

Kylo Ren stared at Rey, curious as to her insistence on bandaging him up. He couldn’t help but feel a little bit ashamed that he was acting like a child, but the injury hurt.

The adrenaline was wearing off and he could feel the throbbing of his ankle. Walking and swimming on it didn’t help his situation at all, but it was better than the alternative of having a guardian drop down and fight them.

Ren was so lost in his thoughts that he hadn’t heard her question.

“Come again?” he asked, trying to release his pain into the Force.

“The bond,” Rey reiterated. “You said we had a bond?”

“Oh,” he replied. “That.”

She waited patiently for him to explain. He tried to find the words, but they eluded him. How was he supposed to explain something that he himself didn’t fully understand?

“We have a bond,” he replied, knowing that it was a weak answer.

“Yes,” Rey nodded. “We’ve established that. And?”

“That’s all I know,” Ren said.

“What?!” Rey exclaimed, pulling the bandage a bit too tight. “What do you mean that’s all you know?”

“Too tight,” Ren said, wincing at the pain.

“Sorry,” she apologised, quite contrite. Loosening up the last bit, she continued. “So you don’t know any more than I do?”

“No,” Ren shook his head. “I’m sorry.”

Rey gave him a look. He didn’t understand what it was, and he understood it even less when she started laughing. As she got her laughter under control he raised an eyebrow in question.

“It’s just that,” she said in between snickers. “I thought you understood all this Force stuff better than I did. You did offer to become my teacher, remember?”

He did. He wasn’t proud of that moment. He knew that he was losing, and that he was losing spectacularly. He knew that she was strong, stronger than him in the Force, but she was untrained. He saw all her potential and didn’t want for it to go to waste. But the way he went about trying to recruit her was wrong.

“I know things about the Force,” he informed her, nursing his bruised ego. “But there are some things that are beyond my understanding.”

“Like this bond.”

“Exactly,” he nodded.

“Perhaps Luke Skywalker could tell me more about this bond,” she smirked.

“You’ve seen it then?” he asked, his interest piqued. “The whole map?”

Her eyes widened and he felt her slam shut whatever mind shields she could. He tested them and found them wanting. He could have destroyed them and taken whatever information she was hiding. He had been training after all, and he could tell that what little training she had, it wasn’t from a master. It was probably from his mother.

She might have overpowered him on Starkiller base, but that was only because he underestimated her.

“Don’t worry,” he said, waving a hand in dismissal. “We’re currently in a truce. I won’t do anything.”

“You won’t?” she asked, not trusting him one bit. “What’s the catch?”

“I won’t,” he swore. “As long as you dry off.”

Ren watched as a blush spread across her cheeks. From what little clothing she wore, he knew that the vest was probably the only thing she could shed without exposing too much skin.

“Artoo, can you make a clothesline?” he asked, knowing that the droid had some sort of long-shot cable, although it was rarely ever used.

The droid beeped and shot a line towards the wall on the side of the fire opposite to him.

“Drape my outer robe on that and get out of your clothes,” he instructed.

“What?”

He could see that she was baffled by his suggestion. Ren sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

“To preserve your modesty,” he blushed, keeping his gaze away from her. “The robe will serve as a makeshift partition as you dry off.”

“Oh,” Rey said, surprised at his thoughtfulness. “Thank you.”

Ren turned his back towards the fire, choosing to face the wall. Behind him, he could hear her moving as she draped his wet cloak over the line and started stripping.

Kylo Ren may be a murderer, but he would never violate a woman’s privacy like that. Not after what happened to his mother with Jabba the Hutt.

***

Rey blushed as she started stripping to her smalls behind Ren’s robe. It wasn’t every day that she was told to strip for her health. The only other time she recalled doing so in recent memory was the day she arrived at Resistance Headquarters where medics were on standby to check her for injuries.

Somehow the room full of healers and patients seemed less public than this small room with Kylo Ren.

She was glad that her clothes were all made of quick-drying fabric. The General had insisted on clothes like that, as if she had foreseen the misadventures that Rey would get into. The current one included.

Rey shuddered as a cool breeze passed through the ceiling of their little room. It was a bit disconcerting being in her smalls, but given the alternative of staying wet, she endured.

Having nothing else to do, she tried to meditate. Instead of reaching out and feeling the Force, however, her consciousness kept coming back to the bond. The bond that Kylo Ren couldn’t explain.

She mentally poked at it and wondered what could have formed it.

“Stop that,” Ren said, his voice bouncing off the wall he was facing.

“You can feel that?” she asked, giving the bond another prod.

“Yes,” he replied testily. “Stop it, it’s annoying.”

Rey stopped herself from giving the bond yet another poke. Instead, she observed it. It was a thin line, not quite a rope. It seemed so flimsy, but from poking it, she knew that it was as strong as durasteel. She followed that bond and she was surprised to find out that she could feel Kylo Ren’s emotions through it.

She could feel his embarrassment at the situation. His anger towards himself for getting caught in the situation in the first place. She felt his genuine concern about them getting sick, his blatant disregard for his swollen ankle.

She could feel that he missed his mother.

Rey knew that she should pull back, that she should respect his privacy, the same way he was respecting hers by facing the wall. But her curiosity got the better of her.

She never thought to think that a person like Kylo Ren would miss his mother.

She followed that thought, only to be blocked by several strong shields.

“Please don’t,” he said in a small voice. He wasn’t angry, just troubled.

”I’m sorry,” she said, quickly retreating back into her own mind.

“Thank you,” he said as soon as she pulled away. “There are some things that shouldn’t be touched.”

Rey stared at his back, puzzled as to his cryptic words. She thought that there was no reason for him to be ashamed of missing his mother, at least he knew her.

“It’s alright to miss her, you know?” she pointed out. “The General misses you too.”

“It’s not as simple as that,” he shrugged. “Leave it alone.”

“But,” she began.

“I said,” he summoned his lightsaber but didn’t ignite it. “Leave it.”

Rey noticed the tension in his back, and in his hand as he gripped his saber. She decided to drop the topic.

They sat there with the sound of the flames eating up the twigs. Rey exhaled, not knowing what else to do. Luckily, or not, her stomach decided to complain.

“Oh,” she said as her stomach growled. “Is it that late already?”

***

Ren fought back a snicker as he heard Rey’s stomach. She might not have noticed the time, but he did. Despite the light streaming through the hole in the ceiling, he knew that they had been on the moon for a while. Majority of his rations were left in the TIE fighter, but he had rations in a waterproof container in his belt.

He summoned the belt towards him using the Force, frivolous as it may have seemed, but he didn’t want to turn around and make Rey even more uncomfortable. He pulled out two bars and tossed one over to her.

“Here,” he said, using the Force to make sure it flew over the fire and the partition.

“Thank you,” she said, a sound indicating that she had caught it.

They ate in silence, not knowing what else to say to each other. It was a temporary truce, after all, nothing more, nothing less.

“I’m going to sleep,” Ren announced as soon as he finished eating. There was no sense in wasting energy when he knew that his ankle needed time to heal. “Artoo, set up a perimeter watch. Alert us if anything is coming our way.”

The droid beeped in affirmative.

Ren twisted his body, looking for a comfortable spot on the floor. It was difficult, but he had been through worse. Exhaling, he released his tension into the Force and fell into a light sleep.

***

Rey heard Kylo Ren snore and fought back a giggle. The whole situation she was in was hilarious, and she knew that she would be laughing about this someday. If someone had told her that she would be stuck inside a ruin with a half-naked Kylo Ren, she would have thought that that person needed a mind-healer.

She lay down on the ground, and thought about her current situation.

It surprised her that he knew so much about R2-D2’s capabilities. And despite the droid’s initial hostility, it followed his instructions anyway.

Rey yawned and felt her eyelids drooping. A nap wouldn’t hurt, she supposed. R2-D2 was keeping watch after all.

The next time Rey opened her eyes, the fire had died down and her clothes were dry. She quickly pulled them on, cringing at how stiff they were.

They were better than nothing, so she ignored it and checked up on her companion.

Ren was still asleep, or feigning sleep. He had not seemed to have moved from his original position. His breathing was even though, so Rey left him alone.

She rummaged through her things and pulled out her own rations, setting a portion aside for Ren. She took down the partition and draped the now-dry cloak over his sleeping form.

She sat down across from him and ate her ration. Rey studied him as she re-evaluated everything she knew about Kylo Ren.

***

Ren woke up when she did, although he didn’t let her know. He let her have her privacy as she pulled on her clothes. He was just about to let her know that he was awake when he felt her drape his cloak over him.

He almost snorted. He never expected her to show him compassion. Then again, the events of the previous day should have made up for some of his wrongdoings on Starkiller Base. Or so he hoped.

He had not been completely honest about the bond.

Ren knew about Force Bonds, or at least he knew about some types of it. There were Master-Padawan training bonds, bonds between partners, and some bonds which didn’t quite have a clear cut explanation.

He knew what a training bond felt like, his uncle had demonstrated it to him once, but only briefly. With so few Masters and so many younglings, Luke couldn’t show favouritism by having a training bond with only one of them. Not even when it was with his own nephew.

Ben also discarded the second bond. Those bonds took years to form. Years of mutual respect. Ben doubted that Rey respected him before yesterday.

He was left with the third type of bond. Of course it would just be his luck that whatever Force Bond he had with her had to be the one that was most difficult to explain. In a sense he had not been completely lying when he told her that he didn’t know much about it.

Her loud chewing brought him back to their current situation.

He got up slowly, pretending that he had just awoken. It wouldn’t have fooled his mother, but it was good enough to fool her. His outer robe pooled at his hips as he sat up.

“Morning,” she greeted, her mouth still partially filled with rations.

“Morning,” he returned the greeting. “From the light though, it seems like it’s almost noon.” Finding an unopened ration bar beside him, he quirked an eyebrow.

“In exchange for the one you gave me yesterday,” she explained, taking a swig of water to chase down the dry food.

“Thank you,” he said, opening his bar and eating it.

She let him have a few minutes to eat the bar in peace before she broke the silence.

“So,” she said as soon as he swallowed the last bite of the bar. “What happens today?”

Ren studied her as he thought. It wouldn’t hurt to have her along, as long as they were in a truce, they could help each other. Whatever the source of the pulse was, it wasn’t those guardians. It had to come from somewhere deeper inside the ruin. He had to get his hands on it, or destroy it.

“I need to go look for the source,” he said. “You could come with me if you want.”

“On your ankle?” she asked, giving the limb a pointed look. “You’d be lucky to make it a few steps.”

“It’s better than it was yesterday,” he replied. And it was, the joint still throbbed, but he knew the bacta had done its job. He could disregard the pain.

“You’re going to trip and fall and die,” Rey said. “Then General Organa would be miserable, even if we won this war. I’m going with you.”

“Why do you have so much concern about my mother?” he asked.

“Why do you have so little?” Rey countered.

Ren chose to ignore her as he put on his tunics. The fabric chafed his skin, but it was better than being wet. He gingerly put his boots on, noting that the one for his swollen ankle was a tighter fit than he was used to, but it wasn’t anything that couldn’t be ignored. He picked up his helmet and put it on.

“You can come along,” he said. “If you wish.”

“I’m not going to let you find some weapon for the First Order,” she said, getting up and dusting off her trousers.

Ren didn’t reply. He walked out of the room, slightly limping, and headed towards the source.

***

Rey scowled as she followed behind Ren, wondering how on earth someone could be so stubborn. He was clearly injured and his ankle wasn’t completely healed yet. She wondered if the First Order really deserved that much devotion.

They moved through the passageway, Ren in the lead. She could tell that he was tracing the source using the Force. She could sense that the source was getting stronger. They were headed down, the ground inclining in that direction.

Rey shivered. It was getting colder. It reminded her of the times when she would be inside a wrecked starship, in the areas that were already submerged in the sand on the outside. She usually needed a light to navigate those parts. She wondered why they didn’t need them now.

“Mirrors.”

“What?” she paused, staring at Ren.

“There are mirrors installed,” he clarified. “They’re arranged in such a way that sunlight from outside would reflect on their surfaces. It’s dim because the mirrors are covered in dust, therefore impeding the full reflection of light.”

“I see,” she said. Looking around, she could see a few mirrors mounted on the walls.

“When people lived here,” Ren continued. “Those mirrors would have been dusted every day. This place would have been as bright as the outside.”

“That’s amazing,” Rey commented. She genuinely thought so. It was astounding that a place as primitive as this one had such a mechanism in place.

They continued on their way in companionable silence. Rey couldn’t help but admire his determination. With every step they took they were closer to their goal, but with every step Ren took on his injured knee, she could tell that it hurt him. The bacta may have helped, but it didn’t cure him completely.

“Stop,” Rey said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“What is it?” he asked, his breathing a bit laboured.

“I uh,” she stammered. “I need to rest.”

“You do?” Ren asked, giving her a once over. “Fine.”

When they were seated, Ren looked over at her and gave her a tilt of his head.

“Thank you.”

Rey smiled and focused on her breathing. They were close, she could feel it. They needed to keep up their strength.

A few minutes later they were back on their feet. Soon, they approached a massive door. She and Ren exchanged looks as he placed his hands on the doors and started pushing.

“Artoo stay out here,” she said, patting the droid on its head.

Rey had a bad feeling about this.

***

Kylo Ren took a steeling breath as he pushed the doors open. He was glad that the doors gave way, or else it would have been a bit awkward if he just pushed and nothing budged.

He could feel Rey tense beside him, already on alert in case something came out of there and attacked them. When the doors began to part, he caught his first glimpse of the inside of the room and gasped.

He pushed harder, more intent to get inside than ever.

Inside was a giant kyber crystal attached to some sort of machine. Ren would bet his lighsaber that that was the source of the pulse that he had felt, and that crystal was responsible for the guardians that had attacked them earlier.

Only the Sith built weapons like that.

It was in the middle of an intersection between two pathways that hovered above darkness. Ren didn’t want to find out where one would end up if they fell. Thankfully, the pathways were wide.

Ren braced himself. He couldn’t recover a crystal that big, not alone and not on the TIE fighter he had. Before he could think of anything else, a guardian dropped down right in front of them.

“Dodge!” he yelled at Rey, flinging himself to the side.

Rey jumped to the other side, landing so close to the edge of the path that Ren thought she would slide and fall over. She had managed to stop herself though, and rolled onto her feet.

“We have to break the console!” he shouted at her.

He hoped that breaking the console would be enough to stop the guardians.

She nodded and ran towards the machine, only to have another guardian drop down and block her path. He bit off a curse as he got up and ran towards her.

The guardians were just as slow as the ones they had previously encountered, and they managed to pass them with no trouble. As they neared the console, six other guardians appeared, two on each path, and slowly made their way to the center.

“Ren?” Rey asked, worry evident in her tone.

“Working on it,” he replied.

The console was as foreign to him as everything else in the ruin. He could see no buttons or knobs or levers on any of the consoles for sides. He quickly ran his hands all over the dash, hoping that he could find something.

No such luck.

He saw that Rey had followed suit, banging on the console’s surface as she tried to find something that clearly wasn’t there.

“Sith,” he cursed. “Desperate times…”

He ignited his saber, feeling the pulse of power flowing through the cracked kyber crystal inside it. Rey took a step, realising his intentions.

He swung down the blade, hoping that in damaging the console, he could stop the guardians.

His blade bounced off the console without even leaving a scratch.

“Curses!” he said, trying once again to destroy the thing with his saber and once again failing.

Rey ignited her own saber, slashing the top and the sides of the console to no effect. She let out a frustrated sound and kicked the console.

“Nothing’s working,” she said.

The guardians were closing in. The two guardians on each side were blocking their escape. The only other way to go was down, and Ren did not think that that was a valid option.

The guardians raised their clubs, poised to strike. Rey stood next to him. Of all the scenarios he could think of that involved him dying, this was never one of them.

The clubs were falling on their heads. Ren was resigned to his fate.

***

“Duck!” Rey said as she pushed Ren to the ground.

The clubs swung down and made contact with the console. As she suspected, the console sustained damage from the guardians, but it still wasn’t enough to break the thing.

“Help me!” she said, going over to another side and intentionally grabbing the attention of the guardians on that side.

She head Ren do the same on another side. Predictably the guardians attacked them, the clubs swinging so slowly that they had enough time to get out of the way.

Three sides of the console down, one to go.

Ren met her at the last console. All eight guardians were poised to attack them. They had nowhere to escape. Trapped as they were, Rey couldn’t help but smile.

If she was going to die, at least she wasn’t dying alone.

As the clubs began their descent, Ren grabbed her hand and pulled her through the impossibly small space between the guardians that were blocking the path where they came from.

Rey could feel it as he gave a rather strong push using the Force, separating the two guardians enough for a space where they could pass through. He kept his hold on her hand as they ran back to the entrance.

She heard as the clubs connected with the console. The whole ruin trembled as the kyber crystal shattered, and the pieces hit the ground and fell off of the pathway into the dark abyss that was underneath them. Rey didn’t look back.

“Damn,” she heard Ren curse.

She assumed it was because of the loss of the crystal, but as they cleared the doorway, she could feel the ground under her feet shift.

“The ruin’s going to collapse,” Ren said. “We have to go.”

He dragged her towards what she supposed was an exit, R2-D2 following right behind them. They cleared the ruin, dodging falling rocks and other debris along the way.

It was only when they were safely outside catching their breaths that Rey realised that he had not let go of her hand.

***

Ren took deep breaths, trying to get his heart rate back down to normal. As much as he hated losing the crystal, he was thankful that he still had his life. Despite having calmed down, he noted that he was feeling a bit dizzy. He chalked it up to the running.

He felt Rey pull her hand away and quickly let go of it. He was blushing underneath his helmet. He didn’t mean to hold her hand for as long as he did, but it had felt right.

Their bond through the Force had been singing when they were in contact.

“Where are we Artoo?” she asked as she looked around.

The droid beeped in response.

“The eastern side?” she asked. “Our ship is on the southern side. How are we supposed to get back to it when the temple has collapsed?”

The droid stayed silent.

Rey huffed in frustration. She sat on the ground to think.

Ren knew that he wasn’t supposed to, she was still his enemy after all, Force Bond or no, but he stood in front of her and offered her a hand up.

“I can fly you there,” he said.

She looked up at him with a suspicious look. He accepted that he deserved it. The last time they were on a ship together, she was unconscious and he was the one responsible for that.

“Why would you do that?” she asked.

“We have a truce,” Ren replied. “You saved me in there, and I still owe you for the bacta and the bandage.”

“What’s the catch?” she asked, still suspicious but taking his hand anyway.

“No catch,” he shook his head and pulled her to her feet. “Come on.”

He dropped her hand and headed towards his ship. He was already a few steps away when she started following him. Ren smiled, at least she wasn’t being stubborn. He felt another wave of dizziness, but brushed it off.

The sooner they left this moon, the better.

***

Rey followed Ren towards his TIE fighter. She was curious about the ship. Poe had told her that the one he flew handled like a dream. She wondered if Ren would let her fly.

As soon as they approached the clearing where his fighter was, Rey could tell that something was wrong. One moment Ren was walking in front of her, slightly limping because of his injured ankle. The next he was falling to the ground.

“Ren!” she said, running towards him.

He hit the ground before she reached him. She stopped beside him, landing on her knees to check on him. She kept one hand on his chest as she surveyed their surroundings. There didn’t seem to be anything dangerous that could cause his sudden collapse.

“Ren,” she shook his shoulder. “Ren!”

No response.

Rey shook her head and moved to remove his helmet. Slipping fingers under the rim, she brushed past his hair so she could undo the latches. Pulling the helmet off, she studied his face, noting how flushed it was.

His breathing was laboured and she touched his forehead. His temperature was high. Alarmed she motioned R2-D2 closer.

“Artoo,” she said as she set aside the helmet. “Do we have anything to bring down a fever?”

The droid beeped in response.

“Just a forehead patch?” she asked in disbelief. The medikit had sutures and anesthesia, but nothing for a simple fever? “Give it here Artoo.”

She quickly removed her vest and folded it, placing it under his head to serve as a pillow. She peeled the forehead patch out of its wrapping and gently smoothed it over his head.

“I could take your TIE fighter and go, you know?” she said, hoping that it would rouse a reation from him. “I could leave you here. I could, but I won’t.”

Rey looked at the TIE fighter and wondered if it had any supplies on board. She instructed R2-D2 to watch over Ren as she looked through the fighter. Inside she found two blankets, several canteens of water, and some rations. The fighter didn’t even have a medikit on-board, which just showed how the little the First Order cared about its troops.

Back outside, Rey placed the things she had gathered near Ren and proceeded to build a fire. She had no idea how to care for a feverish person, seeing as how she had never been sick herself, but she supposed that she should at least try.

It looked like they were going to be making camp for a while.

Rey sighed as she plopped down on the ground and tried to meditate. The pulse she felt in the Force was gone, confirming that the crystal they had destroyed had been the one that was giving it off. She couldn’t help but wonder how it activated in the first place.

A groan from Ren interrupted her thoughts. She moved closer and observed him. He seemed to be shivering. He was so bundled up in his clothes that she had no idea why he would be cold. Still, she draped one of the blankets over him.

Making sure she had him nice and tucked in, she observed his face.

The blanket was helping him fight off the chill because his face relaxed. While his breathing was still laboured, it seemed like his fever had at least gone down a bit. She sat down beside him and wondered.

All the First Order was evil, she knew that. Finn was the exception, but only because he had fought against the indoctrination that the First Order had done to all their troopers. The higher ups were different though.

Ren was swayed to the Dark Side, or so General Organa kept insisting. He didn’t go through the indoctrination that Finn did, but he was firmly loyal to the First Order. This in itself made him evil. Didn’t it?

If Rey believed what General Organa had told her, the Dark Side wasn’t completely evil, and the Light wasn’t completely good. Rey shrugged. She was currently taking care of someone, philosophy would have to wait.

As she brought her attention back to Ren, she couldn’t help but think that the General had a point. If Ren had been completely evil, he wouldn’t have saved her from the guardians. He wouldn’t have saved her from drowning.

Rey brushed his hair off of his face and closed her eyes as she concentrated on their bond once again. It was warm. Not the sickly warmth of Ren’s fever, nor the raging heat of hatred, but warm like an embrace.

A shiver ran down her spine. Rey pulled her hand down, startled. Surely she wasn’t finding the thought of an embrace from Kylo Ren as something _pleasurable_?

She shook her head and scowled. Rey knew better than to lie to herself.

He had piqued her curiosity since their first meeting. She had never met another Force sensitive before, not that she could remember. He frightened her, yes. But he also intrigued her. Their confrontation on Starkiller had buried that curiosity under rage, but his recent actions brought all that curiosity back.

Curiosity and, possibly, attraction.

Rey rubbed at her eyes. She was being silly. They were in a middle of a war, and on opposing sides to boot. There was no way that anything could happen between them.

Still, she couldn’t help but notice that he kept the scar she had given him. With the technology available, he could have had the scar removed, but he didn’t. It gave her a twisted sort of pleasure to see her mark on him.

She gave herself a sad smile as she got up. There was nothing else she could do so she might as well practice with her staff.

Through the rest of the afternoon she kept practicing with her staff, pausing to check up on Ren. His fever seemed to be going down, but the forehead patch was getting warm. She switched it with a new one.

When the sun went down and he still didn’t wake, Rey moved him closer to the fire. She tilted his head up, making sure that he could swallow a few sips of water. He was sweating, and yet he was shivering. She covered him with the other blanket.

R2-D2 beeped in concern.

“Don’t worry Artoo,” Rey assured the droid. “I’m not cold.”

An hour or so later, she was eating those words. Trembling, she sat as close to the fire as she could without burning herself. She blew into her hands, hoping that it would help keep her fingers warm.

“Rey?” Ren said, his voice rough from sleep.

“Ren,” she smiled, relieved that he was awake. “Are you alright?”

“Head…hurts,” he replied.

“You had a fever,” she explained. She placed a hand on his forehead and frowned. “Still do.”

“’M cold,” he said, burrowing back under the blankets.

“That makes two of us,” she replied.

“Get in,” he said, lifting the edge of the blankets.

“What?” her eyes widened.

“Saves heat,” he yawned. “Get in.”

Rey would have declined, but she _was_ cold. Hesitantly, she slipped under the blankets and stretched out beside him, holding herself as stiffly as possible so she wouldn’t have to touch him.

“Am I that despicable?” Ren whispered. “That you wouldn’t even touch me?”

“I…” Rey trailed off.

She relaxed and turned on her side, her back touching his arm. It was the best she could give him. They were still enemies after all.

“Good night Ren,” she said.

“Good night,” he replied, his voice full of some unknown emotion that she couldn’t read. “Rey.”

***

Ren woke up slowly. He was warm, the ground beneath him was damp with moisture. In their sleep, he and Rey had moved close together, her head was on his shoulder and his hand was slung over her waist. He kept his breathing even as he tried to recall the previous day.

After they had cleared the temple, they were supposed to go back to his TIE fighter so that he could fly her to her ship, but he had collapse. Everything after that was a hazy bunch of memories. He knew she put the fever patch on his forehead, but he wasn’t certain that she had brushed his hair back when she did. His mouth wasn’t as dry as it could have been, did she really put his head on her lap as she got him to drink some water?

And their bond, he could have sworn that he felt some affection come from her over it. But it might have just been a figment of a fevered dream.

As much as he had wanted to fall back asleep, something at the back of his mind prevented him from doing so. Quietly, she shook Rey awake.

“What?” Rey blinked.

“Something’s coming our way.”

Sure enough, an Upsilon class shuttle was heading straight towards them. Ren scowled. It was Hux.

It was too late to get Rey to hide, knowing that the shuttle had probably already scanned the area. Still, he needed to protect her.

It was only because they were still in a truce. Or so Ren told himself.

“Do as I say,” he told her as the shuttle was about to land. “Trust me.”

Rey shot him a worried look then nodded. She had no other choice but to trust him. He moved behind her and held her arms in a hold.

“Sorry,” he whispered, his breath caressing her ear.

When the ship landed and the ramp rolled out, Hux was the first one to exit. He was haughty, sticking his nose up at the surroundings.

“Well Ren,” he said, nodding at Ren. “There you are. And it looks like you’ve caught the girl you were looking for.”

“Hux,” Ren greeted, keeping his face impassive. “How did you find me?”

“The same way I found you last time,” Hux smirked, pausing just to rile Ren. “I used the Force.”

Ren stared at the other man and raised his eyebrow just a fraction. Hux couldn’t use the Force, much to the ginger’s dismay because that made Ren much more special in the Supreme Leader’s eyes.

“Oh fine,” Hux shrugged. “Homing beacon. After what happened on Starkiller, do you really suppose that the Supreme Leader wouldn’t take precautions?”

“I was on my way back,” Ren said.

“Well, this would just speed us along then,” Hux turned to reboard the shuttle. “Bring her along and we can throw her in a holding cell.”

“Fine,” Ren replied, but in a smaller voice he whispered to Rey. “Faint.”

Rey took her cue as he waved his hand in her face. She let herself fall into his arms, willingly this time, trusting him to catch her. He did, expertly.

“I don’t understand why you should carry her in that way,” Hux sneered. “It’s menial labour. The droid?”

“Artoo will follow along peacefully,” Ren assured him. “Come along Artoo.”

He used the Force to place his helmet over Rey’s abdomen. Her lightsaber was still clipped onto her belt, he could use a little sleight of hand later and pass that over to R2-D2 for safekeeping. He scowled at her staff however, seeing no way to bring it without raising Hux’s suspicions.

“Ren?” Hux asked, pausing at the top of the ramp. “Any time now.”

He didn’t bother responding. Using the Force, he floated the staff over and placed it between him and Rey. If Hux found that weird, then he would just have to deal with it.

The whole way back to their star destroyer, Ren sent comforting thoughts towards Rey, hoping that those thoughts would be enough to reassure her that their truce is still in place.

***

Rey woke when they landed. She felt a bit sheepish that she had actually fallen asleep in Ren’s arms, but he was more comfortable than the hard ground they had slept on and the comforting feelings she had felt coming from him had lulled her into sleep.

She felt him lift her again, they were probably going to lock her up and interrogate her about the whereabouts of Luke Skywalker.

“Are you going to wait for her to wake again?” Hux asked. “It’s rather time-consuming. Let the troopers interrogate her this time.”

“No,” Ren denied. She could feel his voice rumble through his chest. “I will handle all her questioning. I just need to see the healers for a bit.”

“Oh?” Hux asked. She could hear the sneer in his voice. “Did she wound you again?”

“A sprain, nothing more,” Ren said.

Immediately, Rey felt guilty. He was still injured, he had just gotten over a fever, and here he was carrying her around like she weighed nothing. He was stubborn, if nothing else.

A small part of her hoped that he liked carrying her around because that meant they could touch.

They entered a room and he let her down, strapping her into another one of those interrogation chairs. As he fixed the locks on her arms, he whispered.

“I’ll be back soon.”

Even when he left, Rey believed him.

Several minutes passed. She couldn’t quite do anything, tied down as she was. She amused herself by making things fly in front of her using the Force. Trivial, but at least it kept her entertained.

The next person to enter her prison was a storm trooper. She wondered if she could escape the same way she did on Starkiller. Ren did say that he was going to rescue her, but should she really trust him?

Doubt crept into the forefront of her mind. Ren was her enemy. Despite their ceasefire on that moon, he was still her enemy. Now that they were in First Order territory, should she really still trust him?

“Such little faith,” the trooper said, taking off his helmet to reveal Ren underneath.

“Ren?” she blinked. “What?”

“No time for questions,” he replied, quickly undoing her restraints. He pulled the trooper helmet back on and motioned for her to follow him. “Come on.”

He led her through the ship. They paused in front of a door and he opened it. Inside there were troopers in various states of undress. It was a locker room.

The troopers turned their head towards the door. When they saw Rey, some of them immediately went for their blasters. Ren stopped them with a raised hand, paralysing them using the Force.

“You did not see her here,” he said, liberally coating his voice with the Force. “You will leave this room and go on your daily duties. Nothing is amiss.”

The troopers did not adopt that dazed demeanour that Rey knew they should have. Ren tried again, to no avail. Some of the troopers were already starting to break his hold.

“You did not see us here,” Rey said, using the Force. “You will leave this room and go about your daily tasks. Nothing is amiss.”

The troopers who could move changed their posture. The ones who were already suited up left, filing past Rey and Ren. The other quickly put on their armour and followed suit.

“Good job,” Ren commended as the door shut behind the last trooper. He take off his helmet and scrunched up his nose in distaste. “Put on a uniform. Quickly.”

Rey moved to the closest locker and started putting on the pieces of the storm trooper uniform. At the corner of her eye, she could see that Ren was nervous. He held himself stiffly, she knew that if anyone opened that door, he would be ready to strike.

“Ready,” she said as soon as she was dressed, all that was left was the helmet.

“Wait,” he said, walking over towards her.

She looked up at him, fully expecting him to straighten out some part or another of the trooper uniform. It wasn’t her fault that she didn’t know which pieces went where.

Instead he surprised her by bending down and pressing his lips to hers.

“What?” she asked, blinking in surprise as he pulled away.

“For luck,” he said, tossing a wink at her before he pulled his helmet on. “Let’s go.”

Rey put on her helmet and followed after him. She wondered how he could be so blasé about the kiss. She poked at their bond. She felt satisfaction and embarrassment flowing from him. Rey couldn’t help but smile.

***

Ren brought them to one of the many hangars on the star ship. Along the way, he couldn’t help but blush as he thought about what he had done. He kissed her as an impulse. It had seemed like something that a hero would do. And he was being a hero, saving her and all.

Although his rescue would have been for naught if she hadn’t gotten all those troopers out of that room. Her strength in the Force was admirable to see.

It was time to end their truce though. As soon as she got off this ship, she would once more be his enemy. That was a depressing thought, especially given the bond between them and the feelings that were just right there if they decide to act on it.

Ren sighed. There were things he had to do. Duties he had to fulfil.

He guided her to a TIE fighter where R2-D2 was waiting with her staff. He watched as she buckled in, leaving the helmet on just in case. He was about to pull away and close the hatch when she spoke.

“Ren?” she asked, tilting her head towards him. “Are you coming with me?”

He didn’t need to see her face to know that she wanted him to come along. He could feel it through their bond, the beginnings of a love that was not going to blaze brightly one moment only to sputter out at the next. He hardened his heart.

“No,” he shook his head. “My place is here. Rey, I…”

He trailed off. It was too soon to say the words. But he knew that this was his only opportunity. The next time they would meet, it would be as adversaries. Still, the words lodged in his throat.

“I know,” Rey touched his arm. “May the Force be with you.”

“And with you,” he said, backing away from the ship and watching as the hatch slid down, forever separating the two.

He watched as she took off, kept watching as the fighter shrank into a speck on the horizon before bursting into hyperdrive. Ren reached for their bond, but it was silent, muted by the distance between them.

He left the hangar and returned to his rooms. There was still much for him to do.

**EPILOGUE**

Rey stole into the infirmary. Outside the party celebrating the end of the First Order was in full swing. She knew that she should probably be out there enjoying things, but she couldn’t. Not yet. Not until she saw Ren.

He switched sides at the last minute. Helping her deal with his fellow Knights of Ren, bringing the Supreme Leader down with a swing of his saber. To say that General Organa was pleased was an understatement.

She moved as quickly and as quietly as she could towards his bedside. Given the extent of his injuries, she was surprised that he wasn’t in a bacta tank. She was about to draw aside his curtains when he spoke.

“I know you’re there Rey.”

She slipped through the curtains and smiled.

“Hello Ren.”

Their bond sung.

**Author's Note:**

> I can't believe I finished with this word count. I mean. Woah. It's not my usual word count, that's for sure. Thanks to the mods of the exchange, **lostinkatland** and **tyrantsandcreampuffs** for organizing this wonderful event!


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